บท 22: Answers I

(Hmm, according to the anime and manga, the entrance to the underground pit should be around here.)

"Let's get started. Gokai Change." Shinobu took out the mobirate with the Ranger key that Ren gave her and transformed.

"Zyuoghger!"

"Zyuoh Shark."

(Hmm...it seems I still can't resist doing the pose when I transformed if I don't consciously stop it. Now, let's start with the thing I wanted to check before I search for the underground pit.) Shinobu tapped the side of her helmet.

(Zyuoh Shark-san, are you there? Hello~ I have some things I'd like to ask.)

After waiting for a few seconds, Shinobu heard a voice in her head.

(Yes. What is it?)

(Zyuoh Shark-san?)

(Yes. My name is Sela and I'm Zyuoh Shark.)

(My name is Kocho Shinobu and I'm the new Gokai Pink. I called you because I have a couple of questions regarding Sentai.)

(What do you want to ask?)

(Umm, before I ask, is there a way we can meet face to face? Talking to a voice in my head is...how do I say... quite unnerving.)

(Well, I'm in a forest now. If you have time, why don't you come to me?)

(Huh? Is that even possible?)

(It's possible. So, what do you say? Want to come over?)

(I don't want to cause you any trouble.) Shinobu replied in a shy voice.

(It's fine. It's no trouble at all. Just take out all the main Zyuohger Ranger keys and put them on the ground. We'll do the rest.)

(Ok.) Shinobu pressed the belt and took out the Zyuoh Eagle, Lion, Elephant, Tiger keys. After that, she transformed back into normal to grab the Zyuoh Shark Ranger key.

She put them on the ground and step back as the Zyuohger Keys begun to glow. Then, sounds came out from the Zyuohger Ranger Keys.

"Eagle: Approved!"

"Lion: Approved!"

"Tiger: Approved!"

"Shark: Approved!"

"Elephant: Approved!"

They rose into the air before spinning faster and faster until a bright glow flashed. Shinobu quickly closed her eyes and when she opened them again, a large cube was hovering in the air with the Zyuohger Ranger keys in them.

(What the...a cube? Hmm, it looks like it's made out of bricks and that weird glow...) Shinobu got closer to the cube and slowly reached her hands out.

*Shing*

The top half of the cube rotated, and the cube suddenly opened, sucking Shinobu inside.

"Wahhhhh!"

--------------------

Somewhere in the forest of Japan

A giant cube opened up and a girl with purple hair came out screaming.

"Wahhh!!-Ouch..."

"Are you alright?" A hand appeared in front of her. She almost grasps it when she noticed that the hand looked oddly animal like, and when Shinobu looked up, she saw a lion with a human like body wearing clothes.

(Ok Shinobu. You just arrived in a new world so maybe it's normal in this world to have an animal's face. I don't know what's normal and I don't know if they know about my true self.)

(The best choice should be to pretend as a normal girl than to take this lion hostage as a hostile. But if these are the Zyuohgers or if someone from the Sentai is watching me do this as a test, then it could affect my image and make it seems like I'm not cut out for these powers.)

(So, I need to show some of my skills while also pretending to be someone they can beat to make their guard down. Should be easy enough.)

(When I see Mitsuri-san again, I have to make sure to give her a present.)

"Kyaa!!" Shinobu screamed and quickly pulled out her katana.

Insect breathing: Butterfly Dance

She uses her breathing style and of course, purposefully miss the attacks by a small margin.

"Wohh!" The lion was startled by Shinobu and jumped back.

Shinobu faces the lion and raise her katana to attack again. She looked like a cat that met a dog for the first time.

"I don't know what kind of demon you are but prepare to die!"

"Please wait!" A man wearing a red jacket shouted while three other animals consisting of a shark, a white tiger and an elephant follow after him.

They stood in front of the lion and spread their arms to cover him.

"He's not a demon! He's a Zyuman!"

"Zyuman?" Shinobu slowly lower her sword.

"That's right." *Weesh* A cube made of light surrounded the four animals' face and they changed into humans.

"Kocho-san, right? It's me, Sela."

"Sela-san? Are you guys the Zyuohger?"

"Yes." The red jacket man answered Shinobu.

"We're the Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger (Animal Sentai Zyuohger). I'm Kazakiri Yamato and they are Amu, Leo and Tusk."

"Nice to meet you."

"What's up?"

"Hello."

Looking at their appearance, Shinobu decided that it should be enough and sheathe her sword.

"Sorry! It was so sudden, and I thought you were a demon!" Shinobu bowed repeatedly.

"Sorry again, Leo-san!"

"It's fine. It's fine. No hard feelings."

"Ah, where are my manners." Shinobu introduce herself.

"My name is Kocho Shinobu. Nice to meet you all."

"For now, why don't we sit down and eat something before we begin talking." Yamato suggested.

"Alright! Time to eat!" Leo quickly ran to the camp site.

The Zyuohger and Shinobu sat in a circle with Leo and Amu eating rice balls, Tusk drinking tea and Shinobu, Yamato and Sela eating takoyaki.

While they were all eating the snacks, Sela turns to Shinobu.

"So Kocho-san, you wanted to ask me a couple of questions regarding Sentai?"

"Right." Shinobu face and aura suddenly became serious.

"Well, what I wanted to ask is..."

"is...?" They lean in with anticipation to her question.

"Do you guys listen to our thoughts when we transform into Sentai!"

"That's what you wanted to ask!" The Zyuohgers fell onto the ground.

"Kocho-san, may I ask why you're asking that?" Yamato asked with a sweat drop.

"W-Well, my thoughts are pretty embarrassing you know. If you guys heard them, I wouldn't be able to show my face anymore." Shinobu covered her blushing face with her hands.

Yamato smiled at Shinobu's answer thinking she was a simple-minded person.

"You don't have to worry about that. It's not like we can listen to you all the time. We can only listen when you talk to us inside your mind."

"I see." *Phew* "What a relief."

(It could be a lie, but he doesn't look like the type that tell a lie.)

"Is that all you wanted to ask?"

"No." Shinobu shook her head.

"I still have more questions."

"For instance, how powerful are the Sentai? I know from Ren that the Super Sentai protected the earth from threats time and time again but just how powerful are you guys?

"Hehe, we're super powerful! There's no enemy in the world that we can't beat!"

"Well, I wouldn't say we can beat everyone." Yamato scratched his cheeks.

"But I guess we're ok."

"Compared to the other Sentai before us, we may be lacking somethings but, we're giving it our all to improving. And I don't exactly know how powerful are the other Sentai but in my Zyuoh Whale form, I can destroy the moon."

"Woah! Really!?"

"Umm. And Mi-chan once threw a six-story building into the sky with his fishing rod. So, I guess we're pretty powerful."

Amu chimed in. "But the other Sentai before and after us are also pretty amazing too."

"For example, the Changeman fought Star King Bazeu, a creature with the size of a planet that absorbed other worlds in his interstellar conquest of the universe."

Tusk: "The Go-onger saved the world from the Gaiark who had destroyed multiple Brane worlds."

(A Brane world is like a dimension, layered upon each other like the layers of a cake which is focused on a theme. There're eleven known Brane worlds, such as Cowboy world, Samurai world and Christmas world.)

Yamato: "The Abaranger defeated the Wicked Life God Dezumozorlya, a parasitic entity that was in the meteorite that crashed to Earth and split the earth into two realities."

Sela: "And the Kyuranger beat Jark Matter, an evil intergalactic government which had dominated the 88 constellation systems."

"Wow! They fought and won against all of those beings. Then..." Shinobu hesitated to ask the next question.

"Are you guys sure about giving these amazing powers to us? I mean, not that I'm not grateful or anything but I don't know if Ren and I can do those things you guys did."

Sela smiled at Shinobu's doubt.

"We're sure." Sela nodded. "And remember, you not doing it alone."

"Love, courage, hope and hearts that strive for justice. The power of Super Sentai will always respond to those feelings."

Shinobu nodded at Sela's answer and finished eating the takoyaki.

"What happens if fell into the wrong hands? Or somebody betray us?"

Tusk answered that question.

"You don't need to worry about that too much. There's a safety check on the Ranger keys. If one Sentai senshi (warrior) were to attack another with clear intent to harm, even if one of them is clearly stronger than the other, the safety check will make their powers equal to the other."

"Huh..." Shinobu went silent for a while, thinking about Tusk's answer.

"Does it work when the senshi is not in their right minds? What if one of them got mind control or fell under hypnosis? How does the safety check even work?"

"Umm, well..." The Zyuohger look at each other confused.

Leo, Yamato, Sela and Amu huddle up.

Leo: (What should we tell her? I just know about the safety check!)

Yamato: (I don't know the answer. Do you?)

Amu: (No way. How about you Sela-chan?)

Sela: (No. Damn it. We should've asked more from him.)

While the four Zyuohgers were panicking, Tusk came to their rescue.

"You have to figure it out yourself. After all, we can't just tell you guys everything." Tusk said with a confident voice.

The rest of them gave Tusk a thumbs up from behind.

"Why not?" Shinobu activated her cuteness.

They panic again and turn their head to Tusk, looking at him to save them.

Amu: (You can do it Tusk-kun.)

Leo: (Alright, bluff your way through!)

"Umm...Because you have to learn what it means to be a Sentai by yourself!"

"That's a good enough reason, I guess." Shinobu mumbled, knowing that she wouldn't get any more answers out of them.

"Phew." They all secretly release a sigh of relief.

"Then, may I ask how the Ranger keys works?"

Yamato: "First, let me ask you. Do you know what the Ranger keys are?"

Shinobu shook her head. "I just know that it gives us incredible powers and allow us to communicate with the original Sentai members."

"Let's start from the beginning. It was the year 2011, the era after Goseiger. The space empire Zangyack attacked the earth."

"That was the greatest crisis that the earth has ever faced, but it had warriors who had stand up against evil time and time again. The 34 Super Sentai came together to battle this great threat."

"This battle is known as the Great Legend War."

"The war went on for many hours. Everyone didn't give up and fought for the safety of the planet. The Zangyack used their battle ships and the Sentai used their robots, but it wasn't enough. The Zangyack had too many ships and soldiers."

"So, the Sentai decided to use an attack that would wipe out all of the Zangyack forces at once, but that kind of power had a price. They would lose their ability to transform."

"But still, hoping that this attack will protect the earth's future, the Sentai and their allies combined all of their power to take out the Zangyack forces. By doing so, their powers got scattered across the galaxy."

"Despite what had happened, the powers of the 34 Super Sentai were not lost forever, but had taken on a new form, the Ranger Keys, which were dispersed all over the universe."

"A Ranger key is the materialization of that senshi's experience, power and spirit."

"I see. What happened after that Yamato-san?"

"Akared, the spirit of all the Red senshi, went into space in search of the Ranger Keys. During his journey, he met Marvelous, the first Gokai Red."

"Well, I'll skip some details but after a while, the Gokaiger arrived on earth in search of the greatest treasure in the universe. To get the treasure, they'd have to collect all the Grand Powers of all Super Sentai."

"Excuse me." Shinobu raised her hand.

"Yes, Kocho-san?"

"You said that the Gokaiger arrived on earth with the Ranger Keys. Did the other Super Sentai who've lost their powers tried to get it back?"

Tusk sipped his tea and answer, "Some of them tried of course. But at the end of the day, they all realized that the Ranger Keys were in good hands and decided to trust the Gokaiger with it."

"After their journey on earth, the Gokaiger returned the Ranger Keys. After that, time passed as usual with new Sentai appearing every year, until six monthes ago."